A controversial Polish right-wing speaker has cancelled an event in Bristol just a day before it was due to start, after a backlash from people in the city.

Rafal Ziemkiewicz had been due to speak in Bristol on Saturday afternoon, as part of a tour of Britain this weekend which took in other speaking engagements in London and Cambridge.

The author and journalist has been controversial in Poland, which has already seen a shift to the far-right generally, where he allegedly compared Muslims to ‘invaders’, and expressed homophobic and anti-semitic views.

Campaigners and politicians in Britain had called on the Home Office not to allow him to enter the country, and as the backlash grew, Ziemkiewicz himself decided to abandon his plans.

Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire (Image: Jon Kent)

He later tweeted saying he would not be visiting Britain because it was now a ‘fascist country’ that would not let him talk.

He originally had been due to speak at the Southville Centre in Southville, but on Thursday and Friday – before Ziemkiewicz abandoned his trip altogether, the venue was understood to have been moved to the parish hall of the Polish Church near The Arches on the Cheltenham Road in St Andrews.

South Bristol’s Labour MP Karin Smyth declined to comment, apart from to confirm she understood the event would not be taking place in her constituency.